Not Applicable
Not Applicable
This invention relates to spectacles, eyeglasses, and metal working means to assemble or disassemble using a circular spring applier or remover. More specifically, a means to secure lenses, temples/sidepieces, earpieces, and nosepieces together as completed eyewear, and a means to fixedly attach mated elongated members with a compression spring.
Up till now, metal eyewear frames have been constructed by brazing/soldering and require great precision to make them consistent and have matched sides. Prior-art metal frames often use screws to secure two brazed-on, tapped, mateable, barrel ends of a bezel tailored around a lense. Nosepad arms and a nosebridge are brazed to the bezels. Nosepad arms often have a brazed on clamp or centrally-tapped cup. The nosepads, secured with a screw to a cup, become immobile if all three holes (including nosepad hole) don""t precisely line up. Endpieces and tapped barrel hinges are often brazed onto the frame. A barrel is brazed to each temple""s front edge. Screws attach endpiece and temple barrels. Lastly an earpiece sleeve is placed on each temple, then bent. Each prior-art spring hinge adds an extra spring, a tapped portion, and a screw portion in a brazed-on cavity.
Including spring temples, prior-art metal frames average 37 parts for assembly (6 screws, 2 bezels, 4 bezel barrel ends, 1 nosebridge, 2 frame endpieces, 4 formed/tapped barrel pieces, 2 temples, 2 earpieces, 2 springs, 2 screws in springs, 2 spring casings, 2 nosepad arms, 2 tapped nosepad cups, 2 nosepads [each sometimes made of 2 parts: metal and plastic]). Often the total is 18 brazed joints; each then requires polishing. Plating is used to conceal brazing color variance. That""s a lot of assembly. The combination of needed transverse and longitudinal strength and large number of pieces and welds adds to the weight of the frame. To reduce eyewear weight, light-strong metals, like titanium, are used; adding expense and brazing difficulty. Expensive combination metals are often used to braze to spring metals, which are difficult to attach to without annealing them from the high temperature of brazing. Because brazing spring metal makes it brittle, or anneals and unravels its form, parts near a braze must remain sizeable. Brazing techniques are often trade secrets. Overall required, complicated, precision may be why the number of quality metal frame manufacturers is limited. Europe is still known for the best quality frames (like Switzerland was known for watches before U.S. mass production).
With wearer motion, screws loosen and the rigid frame can bend. Poor brazed joints can break from eyewear use. The more flexible frames tend to reduce tension to the head, compromising support for temple-style eyewear. Fishline, when used, stretches, so lenses can accidentally pop out of a frame. Nuts and bolts, used on some rimless lenses, easily loosen with wear. Slight frame imperfections can tilt the frame on the wearer. The bulk of the rigid frame, hinges, nosepad arms, and especially the bezel ends can complicate the appearance of glasses without adding style.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,684 by Jean V. Rittmann, granted Jan. 12, 1999, entitled EYEGLASS SUPPORT SYSTEM (see Prior-Art FIG. 1), discloses eyewear that support by xe2x80x9cleveraging eyeglasses only onto the wearer""s nosexe2x80x9d and support xe2x80x9cwithout laterally pressuring the wearer""s headxe2x80x9d. Constructing this lever system; using rigid frames, and hinges with stops (P.O. not. 89); means sidepieces must be spread/tailored to each wearer""s head width without pressure. A sidepiece length-changing method further complicates frame structure. Without stops, the frame may wobble side to side with a wearer""s head movement. Also, production may be limited to established manufacturers, as prior-art frame construction is so complex.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,983 by Vittorio Tabacchi and Vicenzo Veil, granted Jul. 8, 1986, entitled METAL FRAME FOR EYEGLASSES, discloses rings of metal, stainless steel, wire; each intended to receive a lense. Lines 30-34, state that lateral regions of the rings are xe2x80x9cweakest and most susceptible to experiencing permanent deformation as a result of annealing to which they have been subject in the operation of the welding of the noses.xe2x80x9d
U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,041 by Larry Higgins, granted Nov. 7, 1978, entitled METHOD OF ASSEMBLING COIL SPRINGS, discloses a helical lacing wire wrapped around overlapped joint segments of adjacent springs and levelizer wire. Any two adjacent coil springs, if attached only to a levelizer by one central lacing, can be rotated. If each coil were considered an elongated member, it is not held from circularly pulling out of the lacing except by friction. Since each coil and the levelizer wire are round (see his FIG. 9), all can rotate from each other within the lacing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,806 by Yuichi Sakai, granted Jun. 4, 1996, entitled EYEGLASSES HAVING IMPROVED LENS FASTENING MEMBER, discloses a lateral lense fastening means using integrally connected, parallel upper and lower wires and a metal piece slidably movable thereon.
This invention is a completely mechanical method of constructing eyewear, without brazing. A frame can be formed by a continuous, bent, spring wire. Each sidepiece can fixedly attach to a corresponding frame endpiece by mating a bent portion of each within a compression spring. Vertically stiff, transversely lithe sidepieces can support with scant lateral pressure to a wearer""s head, and can close to the frame without hinges. The length of a spring over the two-part endpiece confines a grooved lense in upper and lower portions of a frame""s eyewire. A lense can be removed by laterally compressing the spring around the endpiece and spreading the endpiece parts apart. Elongated members, unrelated to eyewear, can be fixedly attached and removed, and/or spread in the ways described above.
A nosebridge can be formed by a continuous, bent, spring wire. It""s bridgeportion has a central, frontward bow, and hooks at it""s lateral sides. Each hook plus the bow substantially encircle the frame bridge in the latitudinal/longitudinal plane, and hold together upper and lower medial portions of a frame""s eyewire. The vertical stability of the lenses, supported in the eyewires, keeps the nosebridge from rotating. The nosebridge hooks continue downwardly/rearwardly as nosepad arms. The end of each arm upwardly loops; each loop can secure a nosepad balljoint.
Eyewear, made this way: can be assembled without tools; can weigh xc2xc ounce (7 grams): much less than prior-art glasses; need only ten parts; flex without permanent distortion; won""t disassemble with wear (as screws do); and look nice. There is no need for tiny casted metal parts, hinges, tiny screws, tapping, brazing, polishing, plating, or earpiece over-molding (or earpiece bending). The invention can be constructed out of small diameter spring metal, which is nearly impossible to prior-art braze, provides simple means to insert/remove lenses, and lets nosepads pivot.
The invention provides advantages for lever eyewear by: providing only scant pressure to a wearer""s head without hinges, reducing rearward frame weight at the ear-rest, and deterring over-shortening of earpieces by causing front frame to flex rearwardly. Spring metal elongated members, unrelated to eyewear, can also be fixedly attached/unattached by hand without the permanency and bulk of crimping, or the annealing of brazing.